J-A28007-22

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

ESTATE OF RHEA S. NEEDLE, 

POWER OF ATTORNEY

APPEAL OF: MICHAEL NEEDLE AND 

WILLIAM NEEDLE

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 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF

 PENNSYLVANIA

 No. 2559 EDA 2021

Appeal from the Decree Entered November 8, 2021

In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Orphans' Court at 

No(s): 322 PR of 2019

BEFORE: PANELLA, P.J., LAZARUS, J., and SULLIVAN, J.

JUDGMENT ORDER BY LAZARUS, J.: FILED DECEMBER 5, 2022

Michael Needle and William Needle appeal from the decree, entered in 

the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Orphans’ Court Division, 

denying their objection to the payment of account preparation fees to 

Appellee, Edward B. Dosik. We quash the appeal.

This appeal arises from an account proceeding initiated by Appellants 

through the filing of a petition seeking an order compelling Appellee to file an 

account of his tenure as agent under a power of attorney executed by Rhea 

S. Needle, now deceased. On June 27, 2019, the court ordered Appellee to 

file an account, which he did on October 30, 2019. Appellants filed objections 

to the account, three of which were dismissed on preliminary objections. The 

court held a hearing on the remaining objections, after which it entered an 

order sustaining one objection and denying the two remaining objections. 
J-A28007-22

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Appellants’ notice of appeal listed three separate decrees dated

November 8, 2021. Two of those decrees denied motions in limine filed by 

the Appellants in the Orphans’ Court. By Order filed April 22, 2022, this Court 

quashed those appeals. See Pa.R.A.P. 341(b) (defining final appealable 

order). The third decree from which appeal was taken disposed of the 

objections to the account. By the same April 22, 2022 Order, this Court 

quashed that appeal, in part, allowing Appellants to proceed only on their 

appeal from the provision of the Orphans’ Court’s decree denying their 

objection to Appellee’s request for account preparation fees. 

As a prefatory matter, we must determine whether this appeal is 

properly before this Court. Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 342 

provides, in relevant part, that an appeal may be taken as of right from an 

order of the Orphans’ Court “confirming an account, or authorizing or directing 

a distribution from an estate or trust[.]” Pa.R.A.P. 342(a). Pursuant to 

Pa.R.O.C.P. 2.9, 

(a) An Account shall be confirmed or petition for 

adjudication/statement of proposed distribution approved

when an adjudication or a decree of distribution is issued by 

the court and docketed by the clerk, expressly confirming 

the Account or approving the petition for 

adjudication/statement of proposed distribution and 

specifying, or indicating by reference to the petition for 

adjudication/statement of proposed distribution, the names 

of those to whom the balance available for distribution is 

awarded and the amount or share awarded to each.

(b) An adjudication confirming an Account discharges the 

fiduciaries as to those transactions set forth in the Account.
J-A28007-22

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Pa.R.O.C.P. 2.9(a) & (b). Accordingly, in an Orphans’ Court account 

proceeding, the final, appealable order is an adjudication or decree of 

distribution confirming the account and directing distribution of the available 

balance. 

Here, the Orphans’ Court entered neither an adjudication nor a decree 

of distribution and did not confirm the account. Rather, the court simply 

issued a decree ruling on Appellants’ objections to the account. Such a decree 

is “an improper antecedent to confirmation of an account.” Estate of 

Meininger, 532 A.2d 475, 477 (Pa. Super. 1987) (dismissing appeal of order 

disposing of objections but not confirming account and holding that, “[a]bsent 

confirmation, and its imprimatur of finality, an appeal is premature and 

therefore interlocutory”). Accordingly, the November 8, 2021, decree of the 

Orphans’ Court disposing of Appellants’ objections to the account is not 

appealable under Pa.R.A.P. 342, and we are constrained to quash the appeal.

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Appeal quashed.

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1 We note that the portion of the Orphans’ Court’s decree granting Appellee’s 

account preparation fees and directing they be paid from the decedent’s estate 

is not an order “authorizing or directing a distribution from an estate” as 

contemplated by Pa.R.A.P. 342(a). A “distribution” is an award to an intestate 

heir, or a beneficiary under a will or trust, of that individual’s share of the net 

estate after payment of all debts and expenses of administration. The 

payment of account preparation fees is simply a disbursement of an 

administrative expense.
J-A28007-22

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Judgment Entered.

Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.

Prothonotary

Date: 12/5/2022